In the Nick of Time
by calliope the muse
Summary: Regina's in trouble. Can Emma get to her in time? Based on the spoiler promos for 2x19 and later. If you don't want to be spoiled, please don't read.


Title: In the Nick of Time

Fandom: OUAT

Pairing: Swan Queen

Rating: PG

Spoilers: Definitely for upcoming episodes.

A/N: This is based on my interpretation of the 2x19 promos that just came out and that dreadful scene with Regina. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this.

While her eyes were expressionless, Regina knew everything that was happening to her. She saw the glint of Hook's signature appendage, heard the drawl of this smooth silvery tongue promising her pain unlike anything she's ever imagined. Yet, she wasn't sure there could be anything worse than what she had endured since she was a young girl at the hands of her cruel and, unbeknownst to her, heartless mother.

Had she only known then…

Voices drifted in and out around her on the periphery of her vision. She could hear but couldn't see them. A man and a woman. One voice sadly familiar. Owen.

If she could have, she would have sighed.

If she could undo the past, she would. She would take it all back. All of it. Even back to that fateful day in the stables. She would have found another way. She would have had Daniel leave ahead of her, and she would have found him. But she didn't realize that her mother was not only incapable of love but of pity and empathy as well. In her naïveté, she had wanted to believe that the power of love could win over her mother. That surely Cora would see her love for Daniel and his love for her, and she would understand.

Understanding never came. It was lost that day and forever more. She had searched and hoped for understanding, but then gave up and gave over to the one thing she thought could fix it all. Power. Magic.

Understanding though was still elusive. She couldn't demand it or magic it into being. She couldn't seek it in the love of an innocent child who had no knowledge of her past misdeeds. She couldn't fix all that she had torn asunder.

Now, here she was on a table at the mercy of a pirate, a broken boy she had wronged, and a stranger. Her life was forfeit. Anything she had ever hoped for or dreamed she could fix with time and effort would never come. She was getting no more chances.

Redemption was the most evil mistress of all. A fallacy. A con.

A con.

A blonde.

Emma.

If she could have, she would have sighed. Her most recent regret.

Unable to move, she couldn't get away from the sour scent of old leather and stagnant sea water as Hook reached above her head. Something cool was pressed to her temples and it felt refreshing, even hopeful. There was a long pause as a buzzing sound filled the air. The hair on her arms stood up and her heart pounded.

If she could have, she would have run away. She would have fought to get off that dreaded table.

Hook leaned over her, looking into her eyes. The cold steel of his hook teased sensually down her cheek. "Forgive me, your Majesty, but if I'm going to ever get my revenge on that crocodile, I'm going to need to level the playing field a little. I'm sure you understand."

A sinister smile split his handsome face as she straightened back up.

"It's ready," the woman behind Regina spoke.

Hook swallowed hard and hesitated only briefly before reaching to his side.

Instantly, a white light flashed behind Regina's eyes as her body contorted into a painful spasm as her heart raced and it felt like her rib cage was splitting open from the force. For a long excruciating moment, her entire body shook from the force.

"Almost there. We need more to reach the threshold where we can drain the magic," the mystery woman growled. When Hook hesitated, she yelled, "Do it!"

Hook turned the dial as far as it would go. He looked away from the body contorting abnormally on the table.

Suddenly, a guttural groan rose from inside Regina and with shock, she released an animalistic scream unlike anything Hook had ever heard. The walls of the small dark room reverberated with the force and in fear of what he had done, Hook slapped at the switch on the console beside him.

Before the squad car fully stopped, Emma had opened the passenger door and was running, gun drawn, down the dock. She just hoped they weren't too late. That they hadn't wasted precious time assuming Henry's disappearance had been Regina's doing.

Emma had regretting so much over her life, and up until coming to Storybrooke and meeting Henry's other mom, giving Henry up had been presumed as her biggest mistake. However, what she regretted more than anything right now was not listening to her gut instinct. From the moment she had met Regina Mills though, she knew there was more to the woman than anyone realized.

It was only after Henry had stumbled into the apartment panicked but unharmed from his near kidnapping at the hands of Owen and Tamara that she felt the weight of her mistakes when it came to Regina bare down on her.

While Henry had never actually seen his mom, he did see her expensive coat absently discarded on the dock. The same coat that Emma spied only a few feet away as she crept closer. A quick glance back and she confirmed that David was behind her, his gun also drawn. She motioned for him to duck lower as she edged around one of the large wood pilings.

Reaching down, she raised the coat to her face and felt her stomach drop at the familiar scent. It was definitely Regina's coat. She looked back at David, and ignoring the confused expression on his face at knowing Regina's scent, she nodded quickly her confirmation that it indeed belonged to the brunette.

As the pair inched further down the dock, they listened carefully for any noise. Emma could have sworn one of the boats was tilting and moving differently than the other ones rocking in the gentle breeze of the bay. She moved silently closing the distance to the boat she suspected held Regina.

Without warning, Emma was stopped in mid-motion, the blood draining from her face as her blood ran cold. A scream that sounded inhuman split the quiet of the dock but she knew immediately who it belonged to and without even acknowledging what she planned to do, Emma jumped onto the deck of the boat and kicked the cabin door down.

It felt like the world was spinning in slow motion. In glimpses, Emma saw Regina on a table, her face deathly pale and her eyes unseeing. In a blind rage, she turned her gun on Hook and shot him – not a kill shot but it would keep him down. She turned back to see Tamara reaching for the machine that Regina was connected to and without thinking, Emma used the apparatus to ram full force into Tamara's body. The force threw the other woman against the wall and it only dazed her for a moment before she lunged at Emma, who in surprise dropped her gun. Her only defense was to wrap her hands in the woman's shirt to gain purchase. When she did, she used her body weight to spin Tamara and slam her with brutal force into the wall again, knocking Tamara out and the table that Regina was on down in the process.

In the background, Emma was only vaguely aware of David punching Owen. Her focus was completely on the Regina who was lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. Emma scrambled over to her and furiously pulled the electrodes off Regina's head.

"Regina?" Emma tentatively touched the cold and clammy skin along Regina's hairline. "Regina, please. Talk to me."

When there was no response, only empty dark eyes staring up at the ceiling, Emma began to shake with fear. She couldn't have been too late. She just couldn't have. She shook her head as her bottom lip began to quiver. "No…no! NO! You can't do this, Regina! You can't do this!" She tugged at the silky red blouse and pulled Regina into her lap, wrapping her arms around the other woman.

She continued to shake her head as tears fell, dripping onto the pallid cheeks of the woman in her arms. "No. Not like this." She buried her face in Regina's neck, the cold stillness against her cheek confirming there was no pulse. A sob broke free from somewhere deep inside, a feeling she didn't even fully realize she held for the woman in her arms made manifest. She didn't care that Regina couldn't hear her. She said it, everything that mattered. That had ever mattered.

"You can't leave me. You can't leave our son. You can't leave us. Do you hear me? Don't leave me, please." Without realizing it, she began rocking Regina in her arms, chanting her pleas into unhearing ears, kissing the cool, damp skin of Regina's neck. Slowly, kissing her way up along a soft cheek until she was looking down into the empty eyes of the woman she was just realizing that she loved. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, she closed out the image of the shell before her and finally did what she wished she had done nearly two years ago. She kissed her.

She took the opportunity to linger, knowing she'd never have the chance again, a hand tangling in the dark hair like she'd wanted to do so often but only had the courage to admit now.

Emma gathered her courage and started to pull away when full lips pressed back and she jerked back in shock. "Regina?"

With a sudden intake of breath, Regina's eyes came back into focus, their warmth and passion back, as she looked up at Emma. "Miss Swan? Did you just kiss me?"

Emma laughed in giddy relief and nodded her head. "And you kissed me back."

Regina tried to sit up and instantly regretted it. Every inch of her body felt like a giant bruise and she was so weak she couldn't even hold her head up.

"Stop, I've got you," Emma fussed and held the brunette a little tighter. "Just rest."

Emma could hear the sirens of the ambulance coming closer and knew their intimate moment would be shattered. She couldn't stand the thought of it. She glanced down at Regina shyly. "So, um, I guess since I brought you back with a kiss that means…" She left the thought deliberately open to see how Regina would react. The last thing she wanted was to leave herself open to humiliation but she needed to know. Was it one sided or not?

For a long moment, Regina looked up at her with a blank expression before a slow but shaky smile took over. Regina mustered her strength to brush the backs of her fingers over Emma's reddened cheeks. "I think we have a lot to talk about, Emma."

Emma smiled back teasingly. "Can we seal that promise with a kiss?"

Regina's breath hitched at the thought and she nodded shyly before sighing contentedly into the kiss Emma offered.


End file.
